The Fallen Heiress: Contract Marriage with the CEO Who Hates Me
Chapter 28: Dirty Ribbon

Chapter 28: Dirty Ribbon

"Did he just ask Jane Devold to be his girlfriend?!"

The crowd grew restless once again. Dozens of pairs of eyes were fixed on Jane Devold and Vernon Lin, still facing each other, while others were glued to Charles Chastain, whose handsome face was now distorted with the mixture of anger and frustration.

That was clearly the last drop. He clenched his fists so hard, his knuckles turned white and he felt his nails piercing the skin. Fired up with rage, he nearly jumped on the stage, stood between his girlfriend and the arrogant graduate, pushing him away from her, and hissed through his teeth like a maddened animal,

"What the hell do you think you’re doing?!"

Jane felt Richard’s tight and somewhat painful grasp on her wrist and tried to jerk it away, however, her almost non-existent strength was no match for her boyfriend’s powerful resistance. Thus, the only thing she could do was to tap him gently on the arm and ask in a trembling, nervous voice,

"Charles, p-please! Calm down, l-let’s not make a scene!"

Normally, Jane’s pleading voice would work like magic on Charles, no matter how out of it he would seem. However, this time, the situation was drastically different.

Vernon Lin, on the other hand, was not affected even by Charles’ angry words. Instead, he touched the blue ribbon, carefully tied around his neck, with his right hand and curled his mouth in a sly, mocking grin, raising his eyebrows, as his uneasiness was beginning to distort his face even more.

And Charles finally snapped. He grabbed the silk ribbon with his free hand and pulled on it as hard as he could, ripping it off Vernon’s neck, making both Jane and the rest of the onlookers gasp in awe.

Unbothered by that reaction, he threw the torn ribbon on the floor of the stage and covered it with his right foot, making sure to put enough pressure on it, in hopes of destroying that disgusting object even more.

Jane widened her eyes, utterly shocked by her boyfriend’s unexpectedly harsh behavior, while Vernon simply kept staring at the dirty ribbon, buried underneath the dirty soles of Charle’s expensive sneakers.

"Charles! How c-could you d-do that?!"

But the guy could no longer hear her, his enraged attention was making him see red, solely focusing on Vernon Lin and his nonchalant and arrogant expression.

Tired of his act, Charles finally released Jane’s hand and grabbed Vernon by the collar of his white shirt, pulling him closer, while glaring at him like a mad beast.

"Do you think this is funny––making fun of someone like Jane Devold?! Does it boost your ego when you toy around like this?!"

Vernon remained silent for a few moments, then put his own hand on top of Charles’ fist and smirked once again, offering him a completely unfazed reply,

"Does it really look like I’m toying with her? Has it ever occurred to you that I might be serious about this girl? Why? Am I not allowed?"

Now it was Charles’ turn to laugh.

"You? With someone like Jane Devold? Are you fucking serious right now? Can’t you hear how ridiculously stupid that idea sounds?"

The crowd joined Charles and a distant echo of laughter spread through the park, making Vernon’s calm facade flinch and finally give in to noticeable annoyance. Savoring the moment of his opponent’s inevitable defeat, Charles pointed first at Jane, then back at Lin, and continued, his voice still full of malice,

"This... Could never work. And do you want to know why? Because no matter how many accolades a commoner knight like you receives, he will never reach the prestige of a real noble."

He then stood in front of Jane, shielding her body with his, while still ignoring her desperate plea to regain his composure, threw a brief glance around, making sure that people were still paying attention to that scene, and, satisfied with what he saw, continued,

"You can have other stupid girls pining after your looks or this whole ridiculous "I’m not like others, cold-boy-act", but it will never work on someone like her. And this... humiliation you have inflicted upon her in front of all these students and professors, this is just another proof of your lowly, undignified nature, Vernon Lin."

As Vernon’s face turned even darker, Charles kicked the dirty, torn ribbon toward his feet and let out an irritated chuckle.

"I guess being smart is not everything. You should have known better than to mess with people like us."

The guy grabbed Jane by her hand again and swiftly pulled her off the stage, leaving the rest of the crowd in an uproar.

Some of the students were whispering, some were laughing out loud, completely unaware of their surroundings, some were throwing judgemental glances toward Vernon, while some could not help but pity him instead, and no matter how hard the Dean tried to subdue the restless crowd and finish the Graduation Ceremony, all his efforts were in vain, as the nobody cared about it anymore.

That was the first and only Graduation Ceremony that was held in such a lowly and undignified manner in the entire history of the University.

Deaf to other students’ urging him to leave the stage and go back home, Vernon continued to stand there motionlessly, his eyes glued to the dirty ribbon next to his feet.

He could not help but feel that that dirty, torn ribbon resembled his crushed heart way too much, and even though he did not really feel anything deep toward Jane Devold, somehow, the humiliation he had to go through just a few minutes ago, seemed unbearably heartwrenching.

At last, the guy let out a long sigh, picked up the ribbon, and after examining its pitiful state for a few moments, clenched it in his hand, shifting his tired eyes to the direction of where Jane was so ruthlessly taken by her boyfriend, and without even realizing it, his glare met a pair of big, Sky-blue eyes looking back at him from behind the broad shoulder of her boyfriend.

Jane Devold was looking at him, too.